Damn Those Racist Hurricanes!…

I heard a statistic the other day that I found fascinating. I can’t remember where I heard it, but even at face value, I think it bears repeating.
Since we’ve begun tracking hurricanes and categorizing them, only five Category 5 hurricanes have ever hit the mainland United States. That’s it. Five. In fact, of the top ten deadliest hurricanes to hit the mainland on record, only one of them occurred after 1950.
Three of the ten deadliest hurricanes struck Louisiana. One Category 4 hurricane in 1915, caused Lake Pontchartrain to overflow and 275 people died as a result.
It’s happened before and, now, it’s happened again.
Certainly the devastation to the Gulf Coast region is heartbreaking. I honestly can’t think of any other word to describe it. The loss of life…the total destruction…it’s indescribable to someone sitting in New Hampshire. I can only imagine what it must be like for the people who’ve lived through it. That didn’t stop Kanye West, though.
Who’s Kanye West? Yeah…you know, I was asking myself that same question. (For those of you curious, it’s pronounced KAHN-yay.) Kanye West is a rapper who, while on a nationally televised benefit for the people affected by Katrina, went off-book and said the following:

I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, “They’re looting.” You see a white family, it says, “They’re looking for food.” And, you know, it’s been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I’ve tried to turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help — with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way — and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us!
George Bush doesn’t care about black people!

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
George Bush doesn’t care about black people. How ignorant is this moron? The sad part is that he honestly believes what he’s saying. So, not only is he a jackass, but he’s also a popular jackass who sells millions of records.
I’m sure that Kanye must not know that the Mayor and the officials in the City of New Orleans didn’t even follow their established Emergency Management Plan.
I’m sure that Kanye must not know that FEMA is not a first response type of organization and wouldn’t have been on the ground right after the hurricane cleared unless the Governor made the request.
I’m sure that Kanye must not know that the Red Cross has gone on the record stating that the Governor of Louisiana kept them out of the region because she didn’t want to “create a magnet” that victims would flock to.
I’m sure that Kanye must not know that the Mayor of New Orleans refused to use school busses to evacuate people, even though there were dozens of them that sat, unused, in a parking lot.
Clearly Kanye must not have known these things or else he’d clearly have come to the conclusion that clearly race had nothing to do with it. It was one huge criminally negligent mess on the part of the municipal and state government in Louisiana.
It doesn’t stop this loser from running his mouth, though, and crying “racism” even when nothing could be further from the truth. But then, Kanye can’t exactly cry “racism” against the Mayor of New Orleans (who is black) who leads a city that is predominantly black. He can’t exactly charge the Governor of Louisiana with racism either, because she’s a woman and a Democrat. Who does that leave?
Exactly.
If people are looking to point fingers and lay blame, then they need to start with the Mayor of NOLA and the Governor of Louisiana. Those two individuals and their respective administrations failed the citizens of their state and, unfortunately, the body count is just beginning. They KNEW that there would be around 100,000 people who couldn’t evacuate and that they would need to move out of the city…and they did nothing.
Here we are now, some eleven days after Katrina came through the Gulf Coast region, and there still hasn’t been a mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans. Toxic waters…no food…no medicine…no potable source of water…and evacuation is still VOLUNTARY! Eleven days have passed and enough people have died already. No one need contract dysentery or similar disease. The Governor can order a mandatory evacuation, and she has failed to do so, just as she has failed to do lead during this entire crisis.
Oh, but I forgot…my bad…George W. Bush is a racist. What was I thinking?
Kanye West is only one step away from saying that the hurricanes themselves are racist for hitting a city with a majority population that is non-caucasian…and that sounds like something he’d say.
This isn’t about race and it isn’t about finger-pointing. It’s about saving lives and people like Kanye West should close his mouth and stop sounding ignorant.
At least Sean Penn went and got a row boat and tried to save people. Jackass.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com